Debt Relief & Management

Posts Tagged ‘primary’

Is Bill Clinton withholding his endorsement and sulking until Barack Obama repays Hillary Clinton’s campaign debt?
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Though Hillary Rodham Clinton racked up more than $30 million in debt during her Democratic primary campaign, she could emerge from her loss with a bundle of campaign cash to either play kingmaker or mount another campaign of her own.

At her disposal are a handful of accounting maneuvers — some never before tried in presidential politics — that would render her political debt practically insignificant, while at the same time freeing up $24 million in currently off-limits cash, according to interviews with her lawyer and outside campaign finance experts.

Enhancing her flexibility is that all but $1 million of her $9.5 million in unpaid bills at the end of April was owed to allies and political firms unlikely to cause her legal or political headaches by demanding prompt payment.

In fact, their umed — but unspoken — cooperation is a key part of the New York senator’s most likely path to robust campaign finances.

That financial path would go something like this: Reclassify as a contribution most of the $11.4 million or more she loaned her campaign, which would be a personal financial hit because she wouldn’t be able to recoup much of it. Ask her donors to redirect $23.7 million they gave for her presidential general election campaign to her Senate campaign committee.

Meanwhile, try to raise some fast cash — possibly with istance from her vanquisher, presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama — to pay off vendors who might sue her presidential campaign, leaving “friendly” debt to be paid down gradually as she raises money from her Senate perch.

A riskier route would be to ask her general election donors to redirect — or “redesignate,” in campaign finance parlance — their general election contributions to Obama’s presidential campaign as part of a deal under which the Illinois senator would ask his donors to give to Clinton to help her pay down her debt.

The most aggressive approach would be to redesignate the general election contributions to her Senate committee, transfer her debt to the same account, and then use the general election contributions to pay off the debt.

There’s a budding debate in the campaign finance bar about the legality of such of a maneuver. Some contend it would amount to illegally “laundering” general election contributions to pay off primary election bills. But others ert a 30-year-old Federal Election Commission decision regarding “surplus” campaign cash allows flexibility in the brave new world of privately financed presidential campaigns.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11020.html

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After 17 months of directing Operation Hillary, the would-be commander-in-chief is confronting some serious debt. $22.5 million of it. According to a report by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) released Friday, Clinton owes $10.3 million to everyone from printers in Iowa to caterers in Pennsylvania to Mark Penn’s consulting firm in D.C. She’s also down the $12.2 million she personally loaned her campaign.

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/06/25/choose-your-own-debtventure.aspx

Faced with a campaign debt of over $20 million, Hillary Clinton discussed the issue with her former rival Barack Obama ahead of their first campaign appearance together to project Democratic party unity. The two spoke by phone Sunday night, the first time the likely Democratic nominee and his former rival have exchanged words since their private meeting in Washington weeks ago before Clinton conceded defeat and endorsed Obama. They discussed retiring Clinton’s campaign debt, a conversation Democratic sources cited by ABC called “constructive”.

They also discussed their forthcoming joint fundraising appearance in Washington on Thursday and the first campaign appearance together appropriately in the small town of Unity, New Hampshire, Friday. Though the former first lady won the New Hampshire Democratic primary, the two received 107 votes each in Unity. More on the US campaign trail

Clinton conceded the Democratic race to Obama June 7, just four days after splitting the final two primary contests in South Dakota and Montana.

The pair held a secret meeting in Washington at the home of Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Clinton supporter, prior to Clinton’s concession but had not spoken since that time. Battle for the White House

Besides talking to Obama, Clinton Monday turned to her supporters for help in settling the well over $20 million in debt, nearly half of which she loaned herself personally earlier in the year when her campaign was virtually broke and faced life-or-death primary contests.

Under campaign finance laws spearheaded by current presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, Clinton must pay herself back before the party’s convention in late August, or else she is only allowed to receive $250,000.

In an e-mail to supporters, Clinton says she “has something I want to say,” and directs readers to a Web video in which she says “Today, I still need your help.”

The video reads: “By helping us pay off our campaign debt, you’re not just helping Hillary elect a Democratic president and grow our majority in Congress. You’re making it possible for her to work as hard as she can on the issues we care about.”

Clinton also continued to praise onetime rival Barack Obama, saying she knows the Illinois senator shares the same goals as she.

The Obama campaign is reportedly open to helping Clinton raise money to pay off her lingering campaign debt, though no agreement has been announced yet. Under campaign finance laws, the Obama campaign is not allowed to retire Clinton’s debt directly
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14701275

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